Matt's Weather Rapport is written by Vermont-based journalist and weather reporter Matt Sutkoski. This blog has a nationwide and worldwide focus, with particular interest in Vermont and the Northeast. Look to Matt's Weather Rapport for expert analysis of weather events, news, the latest on climate change science, fun stuff, and wild photos and videos of big weather events. Also check for my frequent quick weather updates on Twitter, @mattalltradesb

Monday, February 20, 2017

Australia Has Been Having A Scary Summer

Lightning strikes Sydney, Australia's airport Friday.

It's been quite a summer in Australia, with terrible storms, extreme heat, wildfires, and you name it.

As we all know, it's summer in the Southern Hemisphere, which makes it severe weather season in that part of the world.

The United States is king of the world, I think, when it comes to extreme summer weather, with tornadoes, hail, flash floods, drought and wildfires.

Especially where rain water washed it into low spots where it collected. As you might expect, there was widespread damage to cars, buildings and gardens with all that hail. Flash flooding in some spots worsened the problem.

Lots of hail accumulated in Sydney, Australia this weekend.

The storm was accompanied by a huge number of lightning strikes. There were widespread power failures and train shut downs because of the lightning. Sydney's airport also closed for a time.